SRAM Wide Range Gets Wider with new GX 1×11, 2×11, and 2×10 Drivetrain Options

I guess when I read the words “gets wider” in the headline I assumed that actually meant wider range, e.g. >42t. 🙁

Still, this is another big step forward.

A $144 consumable is still ridiculous, as is $144 for a cassette constructed in the manner of their 1030 cassettes.

I actually don’t care quite so much about the cassette price(though $50 XT cassettes have been nice:) That a replacement you can predict, & save for. It’s being kept off the bike because I can’t afford a $200+ derailleur replacement if I smash mine to bits that kept me from going 11 speed. $115(& likely less than $100 before 2016) at retail? That I can swing in a pinch. I’ll probably go with the lighter cassette, & maybe a X1 or XX1 shifter, & this derailleur.

The retrofit cost of $302 omits a very important item – an XD driver. Like many others have already said, they should have introduced a 10 speed 11-40 or 11-42 cassette.

This is a step in the right direction for sure. Yeah it’s still a pricey conversion. But now if you buy a new bike that’s all XX1/X01 or whatever, the drivetrain maintenance costs just got a whole lot cheaper because really this is all about the cassette.

11-40 zee on a standard hub with your choice front . i run a 32 its low enough to climb and i can only spin it out on the road which means i should be pumping not pedaling

Regarding cassettes: PG-1030 MSRP is $59, not $144. Even the PG-1050 is only $76.
And the XG-1150, though pinned, uses 123 pins, not a mere 6 pins like an Alivio cassette, which means the cogs support each other really well and won’t flex like the low-end cassettes can.

What do you mean by “flex?” Cause if you’re saying these cogs will move more independently from each other than a alivio cassette, you’re on crack, unless SRAM doesn’t pin the rivets correctly(tightly) enough.

In all other cassette cases, the load applied to one cog is not shared with any other cog. Even in the case of spidered gears, the load is borne by the spider, but not by the gears out of mesh with the chain. Each cog’s load is transferred directly to the freehub body.

Don’t worry guys. There are several manufacturers bringing our cheap 11-40 11 speed cassettes shortly as well as cheap 11 speed shifters that are Shimano compatible. They will be in time for Shimano’s XT 11 speed release. It may be possible to go 11 speed and use the existing 10 speed derailleur as well as the pull ratios will be close…

@Eric Hansen: How can you determine it’s a bad design just based on some pictures and a description? I’m assuming you haven’t ridden the cassette either so how can you have such strong opinion?

@Eric Hansen: maybe you should contact sram re. a job, since you’re obviously a better engineer than anyone they currently employ. You’re probably not actually an engineer, but you sure sound like you [at least think] you know a lot.

Do you honesty believe they did no FEA, or testing in developing this product? (I concede, looking at every Avid product ever made, they sure don’t look like they did much testing)

It always amazes me how the internet always seems to know more about failure mechanics than people who study it, and actually know something about the design.

Cascade failure? are you sh*tting me? that’s why they’ve built fault tolerance into it by having MANY MORE pins, so that if one fails, you have enough pins there to take up the load. You think they engineered it so sloppily that one fastener failing is enough cause it to lose integrity? Even then, how often to do people break pins on cassettes? & on traditional cassettes, they’re full length, these only pin two cogs together in any case. That reduces leverage applied to each pin, As does distributing the load between a higher quantity of pins. Furthermore, they’ve increased the amount of friction that would be required to break any cog free enough to move independently, again because of a higher complement of fasteners. This is basic physics: if you need to prevent two things from moving independently of each other, you increase the amount, or binding force, of the fasteners used. Yes, you should use as few fasteners as is practicable, but that’s for weight & machining cost reasons.

i: Contacting SRAM (and Shimano, for that matter, but I don’t speak Japanese) at some point is part of the plan. I’m a third year electrical engineering student at OSU. However, that doesn’t tell the whole story. I spent many years in the Army fixing everything from globe spanning classified data networks, direction finding arrays, antennas, morse intercept schemes, and more. Then, the Army decided I needed to fix the electronics on unmanned aerial vehicles. Did that for a few tours in Iraq, but the need for mechanical techs was much greater than the need for electronic ones, so I cross trained to fixing engines and carbon fiber airframes. Then I fixed small engines for a few years while transitioning back to civilian life before starting college. In over a decade of fixing stuff, i’ve never been at a job more than 6 months without figuring out a better, or at least different, way of doing whatever needs to be done. Fixing stuff consistently got boring, so i’m training to make stuff.

There was one error in a previous post, though. While there are 135 more parts to fail, each one can fail in multiple places. 369 points of failure in this cassette, and one (per cog) in any conventional cassette. Recipe for disaster.

groghunter – Pins on a regular cassette are irrelevant to the functioning of the cassette; they can be removed entirely. But pins ARE relevant to the manufacture of a cassette, and the price it should reasonably cost. As I mentioned before, stamped steel, and pinned, but this cassette is 121% the cost of a similarly manufactured one. The difference, EVERY pin on this cassette is stressed ALL the time, except when in the top or bottom cog. Furthermore, speaking of ‘basic physics’, each pin is oriented such that the maximum stress is held by each pin constantly. (u x v)sin(theta) where theta = 90°.

As for SRAM’s ability to pre-test their products for failure, they’re actually not very good at that:
https://bikerumor.com/2013/12/13/sram-announces-complete-recall-of-all-road-hydraulic-rim-and-disc-brakes-stop-use-immediately/ What they are really good at, is customer service after a failure. You know, that whole bit where they’ll send you some new Guides to replace your crap Elixirs, no matter the age or mileage?

SRAM puts out a lot of stuff that fails under normal use. They’re given slack because they’ll give you another of whatever broke early for free. That’s not great.

Saying “more pins = less failure because if one breaks, the others share the load” is like saying it’s cool to ride a 40 spoke wheel with one of them broken. Surely, the other 39 will “share the load”

I’m with Eric Hansen on this one. I may not have an engineering degree, but enough real world experience teaches the lesson to k.i.s.s. The more steps, the more points of failure. A 123 pin cassette does look like a disaster waiting to happen. Pins unlike proper rivets work loose with time, and once one ring goes, they’ll all go.

@Eric Hansen – all good points, but if I’d have to play the devil’s advocate I’d say that on the cheap pressed cassette, the cogs have the same inner diameter, so the pins that go through the smallest cog also connect to the largest cog. In order to save weight, the cogs on XG overlap only so much that the pins connect just the two of them. That also kinda explains the 144$ price, I guess the manufacturing costs are way higher with that in mind. Also the sheer number of pins ensures that the forces on them are so low that there can be no failures.

Just exactly what in this world is wrong with SRAM? They said before that their 1×11 drivetrain has the widest gearing ratio of all drivetrains available. But now they came back with 2x. Tomorrow a 3x drivetrain? So after all, they begin to go back to basics. Shimano was right all along then? They want out of this world ratio? They better bring out 4×15 maybe? Now that’s an innovation!

11-43 ?
11-44 ?

ZigaK – It’s hard to tell from the one dimensional image, but it looks like each ring is only connected to the adjacent ones, dome style. If the rings all went to the driver, there would be no reason to pin them at the periphery. Can’t tell for sure from this picture, though.

Sanchez – $144 isn’t as cheaply as SRAM can make this, it’s as cheap as they can offer it while padding your purchase with enough money to give you two more free ones if they break.

“…who is actually riding XTR 3×11?”

Probably more people than are riding SRAM GX. Or Anything SRAM 2×11 for that matter.

The cool bit about XTR cranks is they can do single/double/triple in 168mm Q factor, or single/double in ‘race’ 158mm Q-factor. A couple other crank manufacturers offer similar functionality; e.13 and RaceFace at the least. DOWN side to XTR cranks; having to use some sort of BB adapter to fit any remotely modern frame worthy of XTR.

When asked if XTR M9000 would ever come with a 10t cog, Shimano reps replied “You’re kidding, right?” Without the 10t, Shimano can’t duplicate the range of SRAM’s XD cassettes. Shimano’s 11 speed mountain isn’t about range, though, it’s about the equality of the ratios between each gear. There aren’t any ‘big’ or ‘small’ ratio jumps on Shimano’s 11-40 cassette. Also a Shimano quote from their reaction to the CX1 group, one I find particularly humorous: “Shimano has never had a problem with front shifting performance.” Shimano intends a 2×11 system to compete with SRAM’s 1×11 offerings. Greater range, more even steps, similar price/weight figures. For those living on particularly flat terrain, a Shimano 1×11 might work OK; it’s only 2t off the mash-up 10sp cassettes many MANY people have been using for years.

In short Shimano’s system is about even steps, and gets range from a 2x crankset. SRAM’s system is about having a 1x crank duplicating as much range as a 2x system as possible.

Thank you Mateo, it was late and I was assuming the same low gear. Following those calculations for a 27.65″ diameter wheel my 29er’s XT 20-32-44 x 11-34 9spd = 678.2%, possibly more common than XTR 3 x 11 and certainly a lot cheaper.

The SRAM 24×42 @ 15.8 gear inches is very low compared to my 20×34 @ 16.3 or 20 x 36 @ 15.4 and probably only of use on a 29er.

@EP: regarding rear derailleur, yes. SRAM is using the same cable actuation ratio on their 11-speed drivetrains, be it road or MTB. they have the same cassette spacing as well. since Zipp recently just launched 202/303 disc wheels with XD compatible hubs, expect to see road/CX bikes with 11-speed 10-42T cassettes, soon. not sure about the front derailleur, though.

actually, scratch that. expect to see ANY dropbar bikes with 11-speed 10-42T cassettes AND single chainring soon, in Force or Rival price point.